THE INDIAN CAMPAIGNS, 1897-8. 
239 
5lst Field Battery R.A., (Captain Blacker). Four guns of this 
battery were pushed out to Shabkadr, on 5th September, from 
Peshawar, under Captain Blacker. Leave season. No other officers 
with battery, as one subaltern had to stay with two guns in Peshawur. 
Action at Shabkadr, on 9th, Captain Blacker severely wounded; 
Sergeant-Major Walman takes command; guns at one time seriously 
threatened. Fired sixty-two shell; casualties : wounded, one officer, 
two non-commissioned officers and one horse. (Sergeant-Major 
Walman received the Distinguished Conduct Medal). 
Mekran expedition. 
This took place early in 1898 in consequence of an attack on a 
survey party on the Mekran coast, between Karachi and Persia. 
Force, under Colonel Maine, consisting of a wing of the Baluchis, a 
detachment of cavalry and two guns of No. 4 (Hazara) Mountain 
Battery. Enemy defeated. 
No. 4 (Hazara) Mountain Battery, two guns (Lieutenant Paine). 
Actions on 31st January and 2nd February ; guns well handled; fired 
125 shell and six case; casualties : killed, one man ; wounded, one man. 
With this expedition, ends the varied series of operations on the 
N.W. Frontier of India in 1897-8, in which twenty-one batteries in all 
took part. In addition to the officers employed regimentally, several 
R.A. officers were serving on the staff, both army and personal, while 
three R.A. General officers were in the field. Major - General 
Yeatman-Biggs, c.b., commanding the Kohat-Kurram Force, and 
afterwards the 2nd Division of the Tirah Force; Brigadier-General 
Elies, c.b., who commanded a division in the Mohmand Expedition 
and troops round the Peshawur Frontier and at the action at 
Shabkadr, and thirdly. Brigadier-General Wodehouse, c.b., c.m.g., 
who commanded a brigade in the Malakand Field Force and was 
severely wounded at Nawagai. Several officers R.A. also did 
excellent service as transport officers, the hardest and most thankless 
job of all and perhaps the most important since an army “ crawls on its 
belly.” There were also, of course, several officers of the Regiment 
in the field in charge of the Ordnance Parks. 
Little now remains to be said, though it has only been possible to 
outline each battery’s doings, and that but disjointedly. The various 
General Officers commanding expeditions were most complimentary in 
their acknowledgements of the work of the Artillery in their com¬ 
mands, and many R.A. officers were mentioned in despatches. At a 
lecture given in the United Service Institution, Simla,* on the Tirah 
Campaign, General Tyler, the Inspector General, Royal Artillery in 
India, commented on the tendency of General officers to split up the bat¬ 
teries in their command, which always resulted in so great a loss, power 
and fire effect, as well as unnecessary movements when in action. These 
are troubles the artillery have always to contend with. All are familiar 
with the sort of order “ to come into action, fire a round or two, and go 
* ‘ The Story of Tirah and the lessons of the campaign,’ by Colonel H. D. Hutchinson, D.M.E. 
“Journal of the United Service Institution of India”, Vol. XXVII., No. 132, July 1898. 
